Tag Archives: bear creek

I got up around 5:00 am and was out the door with the dog before 6:00 am. I wanted to check out the wildflowers along Bear Valley Road again to see if I could find the Most Beautiful Jewel Flower that was spotted there during the last Tuleyome driving tour. Trying to drive the car on a dirt road, with sheer cliff walls on one side and a drop into a deep ravine on the other, while I tried to search for a tiny plant with nearly black flowers on it proved… difficult. Hah! So, I didn’t find that flower, but I did see some I hadn’t seen the last time I was out there, and I was also compensated with the surprise find of an in-the-wild Burrowing Owl in one of the cattle ranch fields!

I saw what I thought at first was a ground squirrel poking its head up in a field, so I stopped the car to get some photos of it. As I zoomed in with the camera, I realized I wasn’t looking at a squirrel, I was looking at a Burrowing Owl. Cool! I’d met one at the Sacramento Zoo, but I had never seen one in its natural habitat before. I got out of the car to try to get closer to the fence that separated me from the owl, but the car door blew shut with a bang(!). [[It was windy out there.]] The owl hunkered down near the opening of its burrow, which made it a lot more difficult to photograph, but I was glad I got to see it at all.

On another part of the road, I saw some Red-Winged Blackbirds mobbing a crow in the air. They were dive-bombing at him and grabbing at him. Then I saw him land on the ground and thought that was weird of him because it made him an easier target for the blackbirds. But then I saw the crow pick up a small blue egg out of a nest hidden in the long grass. I’m not sure, but I think the crow swallowed it. (I didn’t see him drop it.) One of the blackbirds landed on the ground behind the crow and then rushed up again, smacking the crow in the back of the head, but the crow didn’t move right away. Instead, he reached down into the nest again. Two of the blackbirds attacked him once more and were finally successful in chasing him off. I couldn’t see into the nest, so I’m not sure how much damage the crow did, but it seems like any nest on the ground is easy-pickings.

I always thought the blackbirds built their nests near water at the base of tules and other tall vegetation, so I was surprised there was one on the ground in an open field filled with roaming cattle. According to the Audubon website, though, the birds also nest “in dense grass in fields. Nest (built by female) is bulky open cup, lashed to standing vegetation, made of grass, leaves, rootlets, lined with fine grass.” I love learning new stuff like this!

There were a lot of California Quails all along the sides of the road, several coveys. But they moved too quickly for me to get any decent photos of them. There were also Killdeer along the road but, again, no photos.

And I saw some Western Kingbirds in what I think was part of their courtship displays. There were also lot of them along the fence lines on the side of the road. Another nice surprise was being able to see a lovely Lark Sparrow. I hardly ever see those guys, and I think the patterns on their faces are so pretty.

I stopped at the Keegan Ranch, which allows you to come onto the property to experience the wildflowers there, and I got to see a LOT of flowers. The fields were like “oceans” of them, with cattle “swimming” through them. I also watched while a rancher on horseback rounded up some cows and their calves with the help of a handful of herding dogs. This ranch and the adjoining Epperson Ranch are actually protected by conservation easements (since 2016). So, they cannot be drastically changed or built upon in perpetuity.

According to an article on them by the California Rangeland Trust: “From the rare serpentine soils, extensive wildflower fields and native grasses to the productive rangeland, this working cattle ranch is a great example of how ranchers can work with conservation groups to voluntarily protect the natural environment and sustain a way of life. These ranches are the first in California to be funded by NRCS’s Grasslands of Special Environmental Significance under its Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. The Keegan and Epperson Ranches are a great example of a multi-agency and private partnership that will protect vital habitats for plants and wildlife, expand and protect wildlife corridors, and will help wildlife adapt to climate change in perpetuity. Conservation of these ranches helps meet several goals aimed at reducing pressures to the Northern California Interior Coast Range Ecoregion outlined in California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan…”

Combined, the ranches comprise 4,049 acres of now-protected landscape. Makes me love this place even more.

My dog, Sergeant Margie, was great through the whole drive. We stopped every once in a while so I could take photos, and when I did, I let him out to pee. On the way home, I had to go potty so I drove up Highway 16 a little ways to use the restrooms at Cowboy Camp. One of the restroom buildings was locked, and the other one had no handle on the door. I used that one, but had no privacy, obviously. Then I stopped at a Shell station in Williams and got a sandwich and cucumber smoothie for supper.

I got up around 6:00 this morning, planning on going out on a wildflower tour with my coworker Nate and volunteer Roxanne.

Nate sent me an email, however, saying that his folks were in town and when they heard what he was doing today, they wanted to go with him – so there went Roxanne’s and my seat in his car.

I texted Roxanne and asked if she’d like to go with me, and she offered to drive. So, around 8:00 am we headed out to Highways 16 and 20 and Bear Valley Road (in Colusa County) – about an hour ahead of Nate and his group. Because we were following almost the same route as Nate, though, our paths crossed a few times. He caught up with us at two spots where we had stopped to look at and photograph the wildflowers, and we passed him a couple of times.

Unlike the last time I went out looking for the wildflowers, today’s excursion was incredible, and Roxanne and I ended up spending the whole day outdoors. I saw some insects and plants I’d never seen before, and the fresh air, exercise and views of flower-painted landscapes was exhilarating. It’s so nice to go on an excursion like this with someone who moves at a browsing pace like I do, and who gets excited by bugs and flowers and the sight of ducks in the river. Hah!

I had originally planned to go out with a guide to locate some Burrowing Owls in the area, but my guide crapped out on me, so instead, I did a pre-field trip jaunt along Highways 16 and 20 to look for wildflowers. It was breezy and about 49º outside when I headed out with the dog.

I went into Woodland and then followed Highway 16 through the Capay Valley to Highway 20 and then out to Bear Valley Road. Usually, around this time of year, there are wildflowers everywhere: tucked in along the highways, in fields, in the pastures of the farms. But today there was nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing everywhere I looked. A lot of work is being done along Highway 16, and there were a few spot where the road is down to one lane, and you have to sit at traffic signs for 5+ minutes for the lane to get clear before you can go. The earth movers have also plowed up the shoulders, so any wildflowers that used to grow there are gone now.

I stopped at Camp Haswell, an old scout camp along the side of Bear Creek. No flowers there either. I walked Sergeant Margie along the bank of the creek, but had to stop after just a few minutes when he started crying and wouldn’t move. I couldn’t understand what his problem was, so I lifted him up and checked him all over. He’d gotten big cocklebur burrs caught in the pads of all of his feet. Poor baby! So I carried him back to the car and sat in the back seat with him while I pulled the burrs from his feet.

Along Highway 20, where there are usually fields filled with poppies and Goldfields and other flowers, there was nothing by brown and silver grass, even in the areas where cattle are allowed to graze. So that was disappointing, too.

Then I headed up Bear Valley Road, because there are farms up there that let you come onto their properties to see the wildflowers. But there were only a few distant spots that had a little bit of color… Lots of cows, but no wildflowers.

I parked along the road next to one of the pastures and had lunch with the dog. While we were eating, a white-faced bull rushed up to the fence, snorting and roaring. I didn’t know if he was mad about my being there, or if he was trash-talking another bull in a pasture on the other side of the road. Whatever his issue was, it was kind of fun to watch him. You don’t hear cow noises in downtown Sacramento…

I then took Highway 20 to the interstate and headed back home. I got back to the house around 2:00 pm and by then it was 73º outside. I was exhausted by then and very disappointed that I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for. I mean, I like cows – especially the calves – but I can’t take my naturalist class out to see a bunch of cows. So, now I have to think of something else to do with them this coming weekend.

I got up about 6:30 this morning and immediately headed toward Woodland. I wanted to get some photos of the wild flowers along Highways 16 and 20, but first I needed to put some gas in the car (and get some coffee) and stop off at the Tuleyome office to pick up Berry and Essa, our Big Day of Giving “spokesbears”. I also needed to fix the phones. I’d gotten an email from F&F (one of the printing companies we work with) saying they had an order for us but were unable to leave a message on the phone. So I checked on that while I was pick up the bears. Someone had turned off the Answer/Message recorder on the main desk set, so I turned it back on. Viola! (I don’t know the office would communicate without me… I fix people’s email; I fix the phone. I am an old broad of many talents.)

Then it was off to the Capay Valley. I’d been out that way before as a passenger for a couple of Tuleyome-related outings, but I’d never driven out there by myself. It’s sort of like driving around Old Shasta; lots of twisty roads, some steep inclines, some “don’t look over the cliff” moments, and a “rock slide” area where the rocks had actually slid into the road! Gasp! But it was a pretty drive. I went through Guinda, Esparto, Capay, Rumsey, and Brooks, and took photos at various locations along the road and at the High Bridge Trail trailhead, the Cowboy Camp trailhead, along part of Cache Creek, and at Camp Haswell near Rumsey. (It’s an old Boy Scout camp with a derelict, empty building on it and some porta-potties right along the edge of Cache Creek. The building is hazardous, but I got some photos of it, and against the redbud trees and green hillsides, it didn’t look nearly as bad as it really was.)

The wild flowers aren’t going crazy yet, but a lot of them were out including Paintbrush, Wild Lupines, Bent-Flowered Fiddleneck, Blue Dicks, California Poppies, Purple Dead Nettles, and others… and the redbud trees were spectacular. I also got some photos of a Red-Breasted Sapsucker and a few other birds around Cache Creek. I saw a few butterflies including a Painted Lady and several Pipevine Swallowtails. I tried to get a photo of a white-and-light-brown mottled butterfly sitting in the grass, but it took off before I could get close enough. Don’t know what that one was. Oh, and I saw my very first Brown-Edged Bee-fly (Bombylius major) also called a “Dark-Edged Bee Fly”. They look like small bumble bees; super furry, but sort of a buttery-brown with dark edges. It caught my attention not only because of its coloring, but because it had a long proboscis sticking out of the front of it. At first, I thought it might be some kind of small glass-winged moth, but nope: it was a bee-fly.

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I DID manage to get a lot of photos of the bears along the route. Berry is so big, it’s hard to lug her around, so I only took her out of the car when I could park and easy pull her out to sit somewhere. Little Essa is much smaller and easy to carry around, so most of the shots I got are of him. As I was taking pictures, I tried to keep in mind the different “tag lines” I want to use when I post the photos of the bears to Tuleyome’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, and took the opportunity to get pictures of Essa with a raccoon track (our Home Place Adventures program did a couple of tracking events), and looking over at Glascock Mountain. Glascock Mountain lies along the Cortina Ridge on the boundary of Yolo and Colusa counties. The Cortina Ridge is a continuation of the Blue Ridge located to the south, however Cache Creek has cut a 2,000 foot canyon between them. There was an old Tuleyome Tale written about the history of the mountain, and part of that read:”…In 1850, Spencer Glascock came to Yolo County from Marion County, Missouri, to take part in the Gold Rush. In 1852, he returned to Missouri to bring his wife, Sarah, and their children to the Capay Valley to settle on a Donation land claim. Together they had eleven children. Two of the children, Daniel (a.k.a. Tucker) and Clinton, started a gang of well-known horse thieves. Demand for horses was high in Mendocino County. This demand prompted the duo to steal horses from neighboring counties, bring them up the Capay Valley, then lay over until the re-branded horses healed. The gang’s headquarters was on the top of present-day Glascock Mountain. The location was supposedly marked with a skull and crossbones carved in a tree…” Kewl, huh?

I had originally planned to go to both the Capay Valley AND Lake Solano today, but the Capay trip took longer than I thought it would – mostly because I kept stopping the car every few minutes to take photos. So instead of heading out to Lake Solano, I headed back to Woodland and stopped at Denney’s to have breakfast for lunch (a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, bacon, sausages and two eggs, with black coffee).

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